Retirement, Pt 2 - Focus
Hi All! Audra here.
Last month I announced to the world that I had retired from my day job. I shared the delightful freedoms and pitfalls I’d discovered which had to do with Time Management. I’d like to share the issue of FOCUS with you this month.
FOCUS is a skill that requires constant care, feeding, and tweaking as you make your way through your journey of life. No matter if you’re answering to an 8 to 5 job, wrangling kids, tending to an aging faction of your life who need you to help them, -- or even on vacation--, you need to have a game plan for your day and stick to it or you’ll find any number of distractions will hijack your good intentions.
Trust me, you are looking at the queen of distraction!
Well-meaning friends and relatives are convinced I have so much time on my hands now that I'm not working, why not go shopping or try the new place in town for lunch? I get invited to help plan wedding/baby showers. I’m at the top of volunteer lists.
Just one simple lunch date with friends tends to evolve into unplanned grocery shopping, car washes, my car parking itself in the Hobby Lobby lot, etc. You get the picture. By the time I get home, it’s not 1:30 as planned, but 3:30 and now I have to think about planning dinner.
Multiply that “fun” by 5 days a week and all of a sudden I sit down Friday night and look at my to-do list and realize only 2 items out of 14 have been crossed off.
And words added to my Scrivener file are woefully missing.
Self-help blogs, books and advice for productivity are out there by the thousands. I listened to and researched many of them, but soon found only a handful fit my lifestyle and routine. Even fewer came with implementation without breaking my budget.
Last month I mentioned I’m going through our house and sorting, donating, or throwing away clutter. That’s just a side job of what I want to accomplish in this phase of my life. Though lunch with friends and a well stocked kitchen are nice, my GOAL is to return to a routine that carves word count back into my day in order to write and finish books.
#1 - I had to clean up my workspace. I’m fortunate to have a room in our house dedicated as my “office.” Along with the worksurface, books, research materials, etc, my office has also transformed into the catch all of random stuff looking for a home. My goal is for all of it to leave my work area. My focus is on entering an environment that confirms that I’m coming to work each day to write.
#2 - I had to make a schedule. Ha! Making the schedule is easy, it’s staying on task that’s difficult. Silly me, I thought coming off of an 8 hour workday, I’d be able to replace day job work duties with writing time and all the admin things that come with it. After a couple of frustrating weeks of failure, I finally blocked out a couple hours each day and play it all by ear. My focus is treating writing as a priority. Time and persistence pays off. Frustration is lessening and new habits are forming. This is not an overnight solution, but more a long-term lifestyle.
#3 - I had to develop a mobility routine - translated, it means I have to get up and move. To me, any type of planned movement is exercise: walking the dogs and working around the house are my two standards. But, I found that if I didn’t get up and physically move away from whatever I was doing each hour, my mind wandered and my focus bounced to things that derailed me for much longer than simply getting up, walking around the house or outside for 5 minutes, refilling my water and then back to the task at hand. Get up! Clear your head! Change your scenery for a few minutes. Hyperfocus is not always your friend. Focus on a healthy routine leading to a healthy life.
Those are the big three suggestions that help keep my mind of track and things are actually getting done. Cutesy slogans and inspirational goal setting memes do nothing for this brain. Persistence to routine and prayer for focus keep me looking at my planner for direction. “Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:6 -- those are the words that assure me I'm on the track and I have a job to do.
What works for you? I love success in action. Bring them on and let’s chat!
